lenox



I 3 Sheets-Sheet 2. E. S. LENOX.

WIRE ROD ROLLING MILL.

(No Model.)

Patented Nov. 2, 1886.

ITNE BEE 5 INVEN T n P\ N4 PEYERS, Phwto'Lllhognbher. Wa'shingmn, llC,

(No Model 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

E. S. LENOX. WIRE ROD ROLLING MILL.

Patented Nov.

N. PETERS, Ph hm. Washin ton, D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEc EDWIN S. LENOX, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE WASHBURN & MOEN MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

WIRE-QROD-ROLLING MILL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 351,836, dated November 2, 1886.

Application filed April 9, 1885. Serial No. 161,637. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWIN S. LENOX, a citi zen of the United States, residing at Worces ter, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and v useful Improvements in Apparatus for R011- ing lVire Rods; and I declare the following to be a description of my said invention, sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable others IO skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

The object of my present inventionistopro- I 5 vide an apparatus for rolling wire rods of small size, that can be economically constructed and.

operated,and that will facilitatethe rapid production'and convenient working of the rods; also, in a compound rod-rolling apparatus; to provide a single supplementary set or finishing train of rolls having rolls and guides which Y are adapted for simultaneously carryingthrough two or more rods, so that the double feeding of said supplemental train can be of fected to accommodate the product that passes through the primary train without too rapid revolution'of the finishing-rolls or too slow revolution of the primary rolls; also, to afford facilities for the proper guiding of the rods from the primary train to the respective grooves of the finishingrolls, and for taking care of the over feed of the rods,which occurs intermediately of the respective trains or series of rolls; also, to afford means for the con- 3 5 venient adjustment of the mechanism to bring the guides and either of the several grooves of the rolls into proper working alignment, as may be required; also, to provide a system of overhanging rolls for rod-rolling mills and a 0 double-guiding mechanism for use in combination with the reducing-rolls, whereby two or more separate rodscan be conducted through separate grooves of said rolls. These objects I attain by mechanism, the nature, construc- 5 tion, and operation of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings,and explained in the following description, the particular subjectmatter claimed being hereinafter definitely specified.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of so much of a wire-rod-rolling mill as will illustrate the nature of my invention. front view of the supplemental train on a larger scale. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section of the supplemental train at line x m. 'Fig. 4

Fig. Sis a transverse vertical section of the same. Fig. 9 is a transverse section of the table and guide at line 2 2, showing the deliverymouth of said guide.

In reference to parts, A denotes the primary train of rolls, which may consist of fourteen pairs of rolls (more or less) mounted and operated in the manner of an ordinary continuous rolling-mill, and throughwhich the bar or billet, as taken from the heating-furnace, (also of ordinary or any suitable construe tion,) is passed and reduced to a rod about of No. 6 wiregage (more or less) as it is delivered from the last pair of rolls a in such primary train.

At the foot of the primary train I arrange a table or platform, B, for the distribution of the over-feed of the rods, and at the foot of said table I locate a single supplemental train of ro11s,'G, for the further reduction and finishing of the rods, as more fully hereinafter explained. The distributing platform or table is made with a downward lateral inclination at the right and left of the center, which Fig. 2 is a' is in line with the working-faces of the two and said double guideway extends along the ridge or top of the inclined table in a direct line, as shown.

The guideway or conductor is preferably made laterally adjustable upon the table for the whole or a portion of its length, so that it can be placed, for directing the rod, in conjunction with either of several grooves formed in. the rolls, so that when one set of such grooves becomes worn out the work can be brought on to another set of grooves with equal facil ity. The lower end of the guideway is contracted to a form that will insure the ends of the rods entering properly to the particular groove intended on to the rolls a. The partition at the upper end of the double conductor D may be made flexible or movable at f, so that it can be shifted to receive the rod issuing from rolls a at either its right or left side, as desired. This result might otherwise be accomplished by the use of a switching-guide located between said rolls a and the end of the partition.

The conductor D may be secured to the table B by means of bolts passing through slotted ears, as at c, and a screw, E, and handwheel E may be combined therewith, as indicated, for facilitating its lateral adjustment with ease and accuracy when the bolts are slightly loosened.

The main portion of the guideway D is open at the top, so that the over-feed of the rod or the surplus delivered from the rolls a in excess of the speed at which it is taken in by the rolls 0 can loop out and distribute itself laterally upon the platform 13, the rods passing at the right of the partition d going to the right incline of the platform, and rods passing at the left of said partition going to the left incline of the platform. The incline of the table or platform B laterally permits the gravity or weight of the rod to act in assisting its distribution over the surface, and to obviate tangling of the loops as they are drawn in by the rolls of the supplemental train.

Vertical guide-rolls G are arranged at the mouth of the funnel or contracted portion D: of the guideways to avoid friction on the angles of the guideway, or to prevent the rod from being drawn out of proper position.

The supplemental series of rolls 0 may consist of five pairs of rolls, more or less. These rolls are mounted on the overhanging ends of a series of shafts,'H, the journals of which are supported, preferably, in a compound housingframe, I, that carries the entire series, and which frame is laterally adjustable upon the main or bed frame.

The gearshafts H are supported in journalbearings, the standards K of which rest upon the bed-frame J, and said gear-shafts are provided with sleeves H that give connection with the roll-shafts H, and also permit the longitudinal extension or contraction necessary as the housing-frame is moved forward or back when adjusting the rolls to proper alignment.

The housingframe is mounted on guidewa-ys J, and is provided with a shaft, i, and

worm 2", which works in connection withtoothed racks J for effecting the adjustment of said housing-frame and rolls, as desired, by the shaft 2' and worm i, being revolved by means of a suitable wrench or crank placed on the projecting squared end of said shaft The worm and shaft it maybe mounted in connection with the housing-frame I and the racks attached to the bed-frame J, or vice versa, as preferred, the action and effect being the same in either case.

The faces of the rolls 0 c c c c are each provided with as many forming-grooves as the width of the roll will conveniently admit. The lateral spacings of said grooves and the width of the delivery-passages at the end of the parallel gnideway D are arranged to coincide in such manner that when said guideway is in position for delivering a rod from one of its channels into one groove of the roll 0 or its leader-guide the other channel will be in correct position for delivering a rod into another one of the grooves of said roll 0 or its leader-guide, so that two separate rods can be fed from said double intermediate guideway, D, to the supplemental train of rolls 0.

The guides m, for directing the rods from one pair of rolls to another in the supplemental train, are made double, with two parallel channels, m, as indicated in Figs. 6, 7, and 8. In the present instance the bottom piece of the guide is formed single and the caps in'separate parts for each channel. The channels are made to coincide with grooves on the rolls, and are twistedin section throughout their length for turning the rod in the usual manner to give different angular ac tions at each pair of rolls. The guide-supporting standards M are in the present instance mounted on gnideways on a projecting ledge, M, or laterally-extending portion of the housing-frame I, said guide-standards bciug laterally adjustable and provided with a screw, it, which is j ournaled in the frame and fitted with a screw-thread to the lower part of the guide-standard, so that by turning said screw the standard M and guides at can be moved forward or back laterally and in relation with therolls, to bring the channels of the guides accurately into line with the grooves of the rolls.

If preferred, the guide standards can be mounted in similar manner on a portion of the bed-frame J, instead of upon the housingframe. Instead of making each guide-stand ard separately adjustable, the entire series, or any number of standards, may be connected to a single foot or bearing plate, so that they would all move together.

The forms of grooves provided in the several rolls may be such as are usually employed for imparting the desired sectional shape to the rod at its several stages of reduction, the final pair of rolls having grooves of the size and form to be imparted to the finished rod.

In the operation of myimproved apparatus the heated billets or bars from the furnace are passed through the primary train A in the manner ordinarily practiced in a continuous rolling-mill. The end of the rod as it issues from between the rolls (1 passes into the guideway D, at one side of the partition (I, (say, at the right,) and runs along said. guide to the supplementary frame, where it is directed by the contracted end of said guideway D", in such manner that it shoots into one of the grooves in the bite of the first pairof rolls 0, and from thence through the several guides and rolls of the finishing-series. As it is my object to avoid too high a rate of speed-for the final pair of rolls, and yet not be compelled to run the leading roll of the primary train slow, the speed of the rolls 0 may be made less than the speed of the rolls'a. Hence there would occur a greater or less percentage of over-feed of the rod between the two trains, and this is accommodated by the inclined table B. The rod loops out laterally over the side of the guideway upon the platform or table, and the inclination of the surface of said table allows theloops of the rod, by their gravity, to slide down the surface and to expand to the full extent required, and in a manner to be readily drawn in by the rolls in due time.

The advantages attained by making the table or platform inclined are that the'loops of the rod can be extended more readily, while the inclination tends to keep the loops of the rods in condition to be drawn through the sec:

ondary train with greater facility and with, .less liability of forming kinks or tangles in the rods when the over-feed is rapidly drawn off from the platform by said secondary train. The first rod having passed through the primary train, a second bar is without delay inserted in said train, the end of the partition or switch is shifted so that the end of said second rod takes the guideway D at the left of said partition,and passing to the supplemental train before the latter portion of the first rod has been drawn through, its end enters one of the other grooves in the bite of thepair'of rolls 0, and, in order passes, forward through the train, the two rods being simultaneously carried and worked by the double guides at and the respective pairs of rolls of which said supplementary train is composed. In like manner rodsfrom the primary train are passed down the double parallel guideway alternately at the right and left of the partition d, so that the single supplementary train, while it is run at a practical speed, is enabled, by reason of its working upon two rods simul taneously, to take care. of the product as it comes from the primary train; and this, too, withoutthe necessity of slowing down the rolls of the primary train, or without requiring the reheating of the rods at an intermediate stage of the rolling operation.

The inclined table or platform B, with the double parallel guideway D,arrangedas herein described, may be employed in connection with a rolling mill or single supplemental train in which the rolls are mounted, in other manner that as herein shown,and in some cases I so intend to use said inclined table and the guide devices D.

In some instances, or, if desired, the double -be ledby suitable guides to separate reeling mechanism, R R, which reels may be made to wind up the rods by automatic action, or in any other suitable manner desired. As I do not include claims to such reeling mechanism as a part of my present invention, 1 have not shown the devices in detail herein.

In cases where it would be inconvenient to.

make the entire housingframe I in asingle casting or piece, owing to its size or the extent of the train, said frame may be made in two or more sections, each section being arranged,

and adjusted substantially as the single frame herein shown.

WVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by. Letters Patent, is-

1. In an apparatus for rolling wire rods, the combination" of a primary train of rolls, a double inclined platform or overfeed table,

double parallel guideways, and a single sup: 7

plemental or finishing train, the rolls of which are provided with a plurality of grooves. substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a wire-rod-rolling mill, alaterally-inclined table or platform for receiving the overfeed of the rod,locatedintermediately between series of reducing-rolls.

3. The combination, with a series of rod-reducing IO11S,'Of a rod-conducting guide having a dividing partition, anda set of finishing- IIO rolls adapted for simultaneously passing separate rods, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. The combination, with a primary series of reducing-rolls and a secondary series of rolls, of an intermedately-located guideway having a dividing partition, and a contracted delivery-mouth adapted for leading two wire rods from the primary train and directing them into separate grooves of the following rolls or the supplementary train, substantially as set forth.

5. In an apparatus for making wirerods,the combination, with the reducing-rolls a, of-a guide or conductor having a dividingpartition,

one end of which partition is made flexible and laterally movable, whereby it is adapted for adjustment to act at either side of the rod issuing the rolls for directing said rods to the right or left of said partition, substantially as set forth.

1 6. An apparatus for making wirerods'eomprising a primary series of rolls in which the red is carried singly, a secondary or finishing train of rolls having a plurality of grooves, intermediate parallel guidewa-ys. and inclined tables for receiving the overfeed of the rods, said apparatus being constructed and arranged so that the end of a second rod may he led into the finishing-train before the latter por tion of the first or preceding rod has passed from between rolls of said finishing-train.

7. The combination, with .a primary train of reducing-rolls, a supplemental or finishing train of rolls, and an intermediately-located ,double inclined overfeed table, of a double parallel guideway or conductor laterally adjustable in relation to said table and the line of rolls, for the purpose set forth.

8. In combination with the rolls of the supplemental train, the housing-frame constructed, substantially asdescribed, for supporting the journals ofthe several pairs or sets of rolls throughout the series, the same being bodily adjustable laterally, whereby the series can be simultaneously moved to the right or left, as

and for the purpose set forth.

9. The combination, with laterally-adjustable roll-supporting housings and the stationary bed-frame in a rolling-mill, of the shaft i i, and the toothed racks J arranged in the manner shown for efl'eeting the adjustment of said housings, as set forth.

10. In a continuous Wire-rolling mill, the combination, with red [icing-rolls having a plurality of wire-forming grooves, of directingguides m, adapted to carry two separate rods simultaneously, passing through said rolls and guides, substantially as set forth.

11. The combination, with the rolls in a wire-rolling mill, of the guide-standards M, laterally adjustable on their bed or support ing Irame, and the screw-shafts a, for effect- 0 ing adjustment thereof, as set forth.

lVitness my hand this 3d day of April, A. D. 1885.

ED\ VIN S. LENOX.

Witnesses:

CHAS. H. BURLEIGH, CHARLES S. JACKSON. 

